UNC's Harrison Barnes drives on Duke's Andre Dawkins during last year's game in Chapel Hill

Wednesday night at the Smith Center, North Carolina and Duke will renew a rivalry so intense and so close that only a single point separates them over their last 75 meetings.

Both teams are ranked among the nation’s top 10. Both still have plenty of star power on the court and on the bench. But for some reason, there just doesn’t seem to be as much anticipation in the buildup for this latest “Battle of the Blues” as there usually is.

Maybe it has something to do with the ACC’s recent decline or the fact that the Blue Devils are coming off a loss that had coach Mike Krzyzewski muttering about how his players still don’t get “it.”

Or maybe we’re just tried of all the hype.

If all else fails we can blame Florida State, which took some of the luster of this matchup – not to mention the air of superiority away from No. 5 UNC and No. 10 Duke – by beating both already this season. That includes a 33-point drubbing of the Tar Heels in Tallahassee last month.

But that doesn’t mean Wednesday’s game can’t be good. Or meaningful.

There is, after all, still nearly half of the ACC schedule left to play. And as Tar Heel coach Roy Williams reminded us on the league’s weekly conference call Monday, it’s still UNC-Duke.

No matter what the records, the circumstances or location, it’s a game that rarely fails to deliver – even when you least expect it.

Both Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams have questions about their teams

Remember that double-overtime classic in 1995, the year Krzyzewski was sidelined because of back surgery and the Blue Devils lost 18 games? Or how about 11 years later when a bunch of Tar Heel freshmen went into Cameron Indoor Stadium and spoiled J.J. Redick’s senior night by upsetting the nation’s No. 1 team?

“I just know that it’s North Carolina against Duke,” Williams said, “and we’ve got to play our best game of the year regardless of where we’re playing or what time the game is.”

The fact that we’ve yet to see or even know what either team’s “best” is only adds to the intrigue of this particular meeting.

Krzyzewski might have praised UNC by calling it “the most talented team in the country” Monday. But to this point, we’ve only seen glimpses of it, though it’s encouraging that most of them have come in the three weeks since defensive stopper Dexter Strickland was lost for the season with a knee injury.

Perhaps Williams’ team is getting ready to flip the proverbial switch and start getting serious about contending for the national championship so many predicted of it as the start of the season.

If it was only that easy for Duke.

Duke's loss to Miami on Sunday only adds to the intrigue of Wednesday's matchup with UNC

Krzyzewski has worried all season about his team’s lack of consistency and leadership and both came back to bite the Blue Devils in Sunday’s overtime loss to Miami. It was a loss that had college basketball’s winningest coach still smoking from the ears more than 24 hours after the fact.

“It’s not just because we lost,” Krzyzewski said. “But because the manner in which we did.”

Through all the physical flaws that were exposed by the Hurricanes – from the inability to box out on the offensive boards to the lack of a reliable point guard to the seven straight missed free throws down the stretch – Coach K’s biggest problem with his team was the lack of effort and energy it showed during the first half.

That won’t be an issue Wednesday. Or at least, it shouldn’t be.

Don’t forget that despite all the gloom and doom coming out of Cameron since Sunday, Duke is still 19-4 with wins against the likes of Michigan, Michigan State, Washington and Kansas. And that, as is also the case in reverse, nothing brings out the best in the Blue Devils than the sight of Carolina blue.

So even though the buildup isn’t what we’ve come to expect from the best rivalry in all of college sports, there’s a good chance the game itself will somehow manage to live up to even the highest of expectations.